So what the deal with the drinking age? (neighborhood, to buy)

[tahiti]

Originally Posted by JERSEY MAN

I guess I'm by myself on this one. I say leave it alone. I've seen to many car fatalities and I think this will add to the total.

no you're not. i'd like everything raised to 21 however as I do think there should be consistancy. i get sick thinking 18 yr old babies being sent to Iraq for the Shrub. (well, i get sick over everyone being sent over, but YKWIM)

[wileynj]

Originally Posted by tahiti

no you're not. i'd like everything raised to 21 however as I do think there should be consistancy. i get sick thinking 18 yr old babies being sent to Iraq for the Shrub. (well, i get sick over everyone being sent over, but YKWIM)

I'm with you two as well... and I think the minimum age for joining the service or at least being called to war should be 21!

[njkate]

Originally Posted by mike0421

Can't rep you again Calico for a while, but when I can, this one will be repped.

However, I'd like to take this a step further: I think it's a states rights issue. People are overlooking the constitutionality of this issue. Before Senator Frank Lautenberg, who chaired the Transportation Committee, threatened to reduce federal highway funding by 10% to any state that did not conform, states had their own ability to set age restrictions. Now, thanks to what is an out and out circumvention of the constitution, we now have a national 21 year old age limit. Let the states decide, without coercion from Washington D.C., what the age should be, just like pre-1988.

Frank Lautenberg has to be without question, one of the greatest perverters of the Constitution that has ever been sent to Capitol Hill. And the NJ voters line up to have orgasms voting for this man. I'd love nothing more than to see Dick Zimmer end his career in November. But that isn't going to happen, is it?

It's all in how one interperts the 10th amendment...but I do agree on lwering the age

[mike0421]

It's too bad that instead of affixing an age onto the individual, there could be a way to confer privileges onto someone based on their I.Q. points. There are many, many 40+ year olds out there (and I know a few personally) that have no business touching booze, period.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by JERSEY MAN

I guess I'm by myself on this one. I say leave it alone. I've seen to many car fatalities and I think this will add to the total.

You're not alone. I see so many drunk driving crashes, drunken brawls, drunken fall injuries, etoh poisonings, death...we should make alcohol and drugs harder to get, not easier.

Don't get me wrong, I love beer. I was also able to wait till I was 21 to drink it.

Yeah, decriminalizing everything would make for less criminals. But what kind of stupid logic is that?

[tahiti]

Originally Posted by mike0421

It's too bad that instead of affixing an age onto the individual, there could be a way to confer privileges onto someone based on their I.Q. points. There are many, many 40+ year olds out there (and I know a few personally) that have no business touching booze, period.

so you advocate MORE government oversight?

[JBrown]

More Gov. oversight on ANY matter is the LAST thing we need....besides..this push to lower the age has nothing to do with rights etc....as usual follow the money..

This is all about the schools trying to extract themselves from future liability legal cases. As long as the age is above 18 then legal arguments can,and have succesfully been made, that they can be held responsible for not exercising enough control of the on campus drinking events etc. If it's legal then they can wash their hands of the issue.

[njkate]

Originally Posted by JBrown

More Gov. oversight on ANY matter is the LAST thing we need....besides..this push to lower the age has nothing to do with rights etc....as usual follow the money..

This is all about the schools trying to extract themselves from future liability legal cases. As long as the age is above 18 then legal arguments can,and have succesfully been made, that they can be held responsible for not exercising enough control of the on campus drinking events etc. If it's legal then they can wash their hands of the issue.

Point well taken!!! Had not thought of that

[MaverickDD]

Originally Posted by colleeng47

This is one of the problems with society. There is no "adult defining" age. Some things you're considered adult for at 14 or so (crimes). Other things you're an adult at 18 and others at 21. There should be one age that defines adult for EVERYTHING.

Respectfully, I could not disagree more. Behaving as an adult requires that one act responsibly and bear responsibility for his/her actions. Responsible behavior is not something learned the moment one turns a certain age, be it 14, 18, or 21. Accordingly, graduated accountability goes hand-in-hand with graduated responsibility.

Hence, 14-year-olds should be accountable to bear the responsibility of knowing that murder is wrong. 18-year-olds are accountable to bear the responsibility of the consequences of their vote. 21-year-olds are accountable to bear the responsibility for holding their liquor. The graduated system makes sense.

Now, some of the ages may need tweaking, and possibly some adult privileges need to have criteria other than age to consider. Yet the system of increasing both responsibility and accountability as young people become wise is one worth keeping.

[Badfish740]

How about abolishing the minimum ages for everything? Everyone can vote, everyone gets tried in court as an adult, everyone can drink and smoke, everyone can drive, etc... After all it's the only logical thing to do in order to shed the chains of the oppressive politburo known as the United States Government! If anyone needs me I'll be stockpiling MREs, potable water, and automatic weapons at my compound in Montana while watching for black helicopters carrying Zionist UN spies who answer to Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, and Woody Guthrie.